up a creek

Idioms

Also, up shit creek; up the creek (without a paddle). In trouble, in a serious predicament, as in If the check doesn't arrive today I'm up a creek, or The car wouldn't start, so I was up the creek without a paddle. This slangy idiom conjures up the image of a stranded canoeist with no way of moving (paddling) the canoe. President Harry S. Truman used the first term in a letter in 1918. The first variant is considered vulgar.

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

In a place like Prospect Park, if a beaver were to dam up a creek, those creeks could flood, submerging nearby trails and amenities.

From Slate • Aug. 31, 2023

I hope this isn’t the kind of benefit of the doubt that is only extended to certain people, or I’ll really be up a creek.

From Washington Post • Feb. 11, 2022

I did everything right, I supported myself, I followed the rules, and yet here I am up a creek without a paddle.

From Los Angeles Times • May 2, 2020

“We’d be up a creek, literally, without a paddle. We’re glad it’s working out this way.”

From Washington Times • Jan. 26, 2020

The doctor, wishing to obtain some meat for his men, took a small canoe and paddled up a creek towards a herd of zebras seen on the shore.

From Great African Travellers From Mungo Park to Livingstone and Stanley by Kingston, William Henry Giles

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023